Goldman Sachs (& Bain Capital) Loves Obama

Tell me again why the Occupy Wall Street crowds haven't switched their focus to the White House and Congress?  The Washington Post reports on the cash that Obama has raked in from Wall Street:

Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data.

Obama’s key advantage over the GOP field is the ability to collect bigger checks because he raises money for both his own campaign committee and for the Democratic National Committee, which will aid in his reelection effort.

As a result, Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all of the GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data.  The numbers show that Obama retains a persistent reservoir of support among Democratic financiers who have backed him since he was an underdog presidential candidate four years ago.

Obama’s fundraising advantage is clear in the case of Bain Capital, the Boston-based private-equity firm that was co-founded by Romney, and where the Republican made his fortune.  Not surprisingly, Romney has strong support at the firm, raking in $34,000 from 18 Bain employees, according to the analysis of data from the Center for responsive Politics.

But Obama has outdone Romney on his own turf, collecting $76,600 from Bain Capital employees through September – and he needed only three donors to do it. [emphasis mine]

The article goes into more detail (and pay particular attention to the accompanying bar graph which places the amounts in good perspective), and includes this item which contrasts the finance sector contributions to Obama and the scion of the Republican Establishment:

Obama clearly has trouble appealing to Wall Street fundraisers, who have emerged in recent years as among the most important sources of campaign cash for major national politicians.

Put aside the DNC money, for example, and Obama’s numbers look much worse: just $3.9 million from the financial sector, compared with Romney’s $7.5 million. . . .

Obama clearly has trouble appealing to Wall Street fundraisers, who have emerged in recent years as among the most important sources of campaign cash for major national politicians.

And, yes, either through competition or pique, the Democrats have noticed the Romney angle:

In a memo issued Tuesday, for example, DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said Romney’s campaign “seems quite proud of the fact that they are leading the money race for campaign cash from Wall Street.”